On Thanksgiving morning, I ran my first Turkey Trot race! I love that these races have popped up all over the country to encourage people to get moving first thing on a day dedicated to eating lots of delicious food.
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| The sign welcoming runners on race morning |
We were in Gainesville with Joe's family for Thanksgiving this year, so I signed up for their Turkey Trot 10K. The race is run on the campus of Tacachale, a residential facility for mentally handicapped people, and the proceeds of the race went to support their work. Exercise for a good cause? Sounds good to me!
The course was a mixture of trails, grass, and roads, which made things a bit challenging. I am not much of a trail runner, so navigating the tree roots and soft ground slowed me down a little bit.
The course was a mixture of trails, grass, and roads, which made things a bit challenging. I am not much of a trail runner, so navigating the tree roots and soft ground slowed me down a little bit.
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| Entering one of the trail sections |
One thing's for sure, though, such a course kept me from getting bored! I was constantly on my toes and wasn't paying too much attention to my distance or time. It made the race seem to go by faster!
I ran/walked the race, since it was my longest run since the Peachtree Road Race in July. I felt pretty strong throughout the whole race and seemed to be making good time. I had splits around 10:30-11:00 pace at first, but I wound up slowing down in the last two miles.
Because the course wound through some trails, there were not that many water stops. I wish they had them a little closer together or provided that information beforehand so that I could have brought my handheld water bottle along.
Overall, though, I was able to finish strong! For a lack of training for this distance, I was pretty pleased with how I did during this race.
I ran/walked the race, since it was my longest run since the Peachtree Road Race in July. I felt pretty strong throughout the whole race and seemed to be making good time. I had splits around 10:30-11:00 pace at first, but I wound up slowing down in the last two miles.
Because the course wound through some trails, there were not that many water stops. I wish they had them a little closer together or provided that information beforehand so that I could have brought my handheld water bottle along.
Overall, though, I was able to finish strong! For a lack of training for this distance, I was pretty pleased with how I did during this race.
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| Finish Line Selfie |
My time, according to my RunKeeper app was:
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| My RunKeepr stats |
This race has me excited to keep training for the Glass Slipper Challenge in February! Based on these results with little training, I think that I can continue to push myself to increase my speed at the 10K distance (and beyond!).
(Check out yesterday's post for a review of MealEnders and enter my giveaway to win yourself 4 packages!)
Question for you: Did you run a Turkey Trot race this year? What are your thoughts on running on trails?
